Another Week in the Books!

106 miles of Training this week. WOW that's a lot, like a whole lot of active moving. Guess what though....I'll be doing 70.3 in one day....a day not to far from now. Eeeeeeeeeeee!!

The View from my Trainer

Monday was AWESOME, I got called to work at one of my favorite dental offices. I love the staff, and I finally got to meet the Dental Hygienist that I usually fill in for at that office. Her patients LOVE her, and I have to say, she's a pretty neat person. After work I had a swim on my schedule to do, but there was a big thunderstorm (or two) moving across the area, so instead of swimming I set up my trainer on the screened in porch and did my form bike workout. It was tough! I don't actually like riding on my trainer (as it doesn't have the feel of your bike on the actual rode), but this was what it was. Lot's of one legged drills in this workout....lot's to think about.

Tuesday was back to my "normal" office to work with all the "normal" stuff going on there. When I got home I wanted to knock my swim out, but had promised to get my butt over to Wine 101 to pick out wines for the fundraiser coming up in a couple of weeks with the owner Joe. So Jason and I drove over (Jason said he would pour the wine for me, so he wanted to know about the wines he was pouring). Unfortunately Joe was not the store when I got there. Because of Hurricane Irene, things got jumbled around a bit and he had to go and make deliveries or some such thing....it's like he owns his own business or something! He did leave us some wines (a case), and we switched out 3 bottles, but it's AWESOME to have someone believe in you and do something great for you! The wine, btw, is for the Wine and Design Painting and Wine Tasting Event that is happening on September 14th. After going out to Wine 101, I headed to the pool, in fact I had Jason drop me off...I swam, and walked home.

At Shelly Lake....pretty sunrise

After 13. miles and still smiling.

Wednesday I was up early, to do my 13 mile run. WOO HOO!! I haven't done 13 in awhile, and I was excited to have friends who wanted to come run parts with me. However one friend had to back out due to childcare conflicts, and another friend met me for 3 miles in the middle, but had to bail because of some injuries and such acting up. So 13.36 miles of mostly just me....and my music (which I will not have in the race). I started early because my one friend needed to get to work after the run, so I headed onto the greenway with my headlamp and a lot of courage. It's dark and a little scary on the greenway in the dark. Thankfully there are actually lot's of us crazy runners out there in early early....so I was only "alone" for a short bit. Plus the sun started to come up...YAY, so the darkness went away and scary was mostly gone. I had lot's of plans to do lot's of things after that run, but I can honestly say I didn't do very many of them. I did go have lunch with my friend Jenn, and I did make it to the bank. Everything else was lost.

Thursday was another "normal" day at my "normal" office. Exciting because of the long weekend, and the other hygienist leaving to go on a trip to London. I got home, and had to convince myself to go swim. I wasn't feeling it at all. I got to the pool and started my speed swim workout, with no one else in the pool. It was break time for the kids (10 minutes of every hour all the kids have to get out of the pool and the lifeguards come down, I think it's for the kids to have a potty break [not in the pool], and for them to eat something). When the guard came back up I was still the only one in the "lap" pool and so she ended up sitting on the edge of the pool "watching/stalking" me. A little bit later a family came in (Mom/Dad/Kids/Grandparents/Cousins....the whole shabang) and were in the lap pool (there are only 2 lanes actually set up). They were all speaking German, so it felt like I was on vacation. HA! Ohh and yes, of course everyone felt the need to swim through the lanes right in front of me. I'm consistently swimming back and forth across the pool. You can't wait until I'm not going to be in the spot, or better yet use the ladder at the other side?? Ohh and one of the teenage boys thought it would be fun to "race" me. As I'm swimming my 8 200's he decides he's going to swim next to me (on the other side of the lane) and see if he can beat me. Luckily it was one of the fast 200's (they were alternating between easy and fast), so I smoked him. Of course I did a flip turn and kept on going, where he did all of 25 meters. It was an annoying swim.....but it got done.

My Buddy...he's getting so big!

Jenn and the boys

Friday is usually a day off for me, and it was a day off for training, but I worked at my other office in Wake Forest. That dental office is faster pace, but I really like the people there. I found out that one of the doctor's is pregnant (I literally hadn't seen her in months). There are always (at least when I'm there) 4 hygienists working there, so it's fun to catch up with everyone. After work we had made plans to meet up with our friends for dinner. I hadn't seen my little buddy in awhile, and I heard tell he was missing me too. We went to Moe's, a kid friendly place and enjoyed our time together.

Another brick done! My eyes are a little wind burned!

Saturday I was up early and ready to go for my last long ride before the race. I tried to find peeps to ride with me, but only one person was willing to ride part of the ride with me. HEY, I'll take what I can get, and DzB is an AWESOME get. I started at the White Oak Church entrance to the American Tobacco Trail, and rode out to meet DzB around Jean's strawberry patch/ Martha's Chapel. We met up and went down the road to Pea Ridge, and then to Corinth, then to 42, and Christians Chapel, and finally onto Old US 1, where DzB left me to go back home, and finished up the rest of ride....to Sharon Harris, New Hill Holeman, back to US 1, up Daisy and Beaver Creek which turns into Farrington, and the onto Hollands Chapel where I hit a big headwind, onto 751 and back up Lewter Shop....with another big headwind (the flag and Jean's Strawberry patch was flying right at me). But I finished out the ride 60.18 miles, and got my running shoes on to go for my run. The plan was to descend my pace every 5 minutes so by the end I would be running a 5 K race pace. Only that my legs felt really peppy off the bike, and I happened to be running on a slight downhill when I started, which meant I probably went out to fast. I felt good though, even though I had to walk a bit more in the middle of my 30 min run than expected. I did sprint out the end. YAY! After my great workout, I came home to go get my car back from the shop and let Jason have his car to go out to UNC. I ate some lunch (it's crazy because I went and got lunch, and then I kinda forgot to eat it). I rested a little, took a shower...you know all the good stuff. My friend texted me to say another friend was in town (she lives in Atlanta for now....) and if I wanted to get dinner to tonight with them.....ahhh YEAH! We all went to dinner and got to catch up, and then we went to Yogurt Mountain for some yummy frozen yogurt.

Jeanne and I after the OWS

Sunday morning came too early! Up and at the lake by 7am, for another Open Water Swim...with the team. Then back in the hood, and waiting for Jason to wake up, then a one hour "Recovery" bike ride with Jason. Our neighborhood is hilly, but you can make it so it's not so hard and you don't have to climb the big hills, but I let Jason lead and he didn't get the memo that this was a recovery ride for me. Needless to say my legs were tired, although by the end of the ride they had finally started to feel a little better! *smiles* The rest of Sunday was lazy....lazy...lazy. With a couple of dog walks (taking care of my neighbors sweet dog while they were away for an all day soccer meet), a nap, and some lounging time.

Angela, Bruce, Jeanne, and Tripp at the Lake

Now it's Monday...LABOR DAY. I've been up since 5 am, as I think I may have my first sinus infection of the season and the amount of post nasal drip has me not able to breath well, or sleep well. I was waiting for there to be light so I can go get my run in. I did take Scout for a walk while it was still dark out. He uses his nose anyways. It's light out now, but I haven't decided if I'm going back to bed for a bit, or just going to go knock out that run. Hmmmmm.